In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back to our in-person event held on Memorial Day – a day to honor and mourn our service men and women who have died while serving in the United States. Last year, the Reagan Foundation held its first ever program on Memorial Day and the feedback from the community was so positive, that we knew we needed to make it an annual event. This year’s program included live musical entertainment, an honor guard, and remarks by Major Cole Lapierre of the US Marine Corps, Captain Michael Meno, Jr., the Commodore of Naval Construction Group One, and remarks by Gold Star Family Members Melanie House and Michelle Carranza.

Like you, we’ve been watching news coverage of the crisis at our borders. Some outlets report record numbers crossing, others report diminished numbers, but one thing everyone seems to agree on is that our system is broken. Democrats, Republicans, Independents – for once they agree that our current immigration policy is a mess. Do you realize that Reagan’s 1986 Immigration Reform Act, 37 years ago, was the last time our legislators finalized a policy? Pretty disturbing isn’t it? So today, let’s try to cut through all the mixed messages and look at what Reagan tried to do and how it might apply to today.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we back to our in-person event with bestselling author Larry Loftis, for his book, The Watchmaker’s Daughter. In 1953 Israel’s Parliament unanimously passed the Yad Vashem Law, which established the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in order to document and record the history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust as well as to acknowledge the countless non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to save Jews. In 1963, Yad Vashem began to award the title “Righteous Among the Nations” which awards non-Jews who risked their lives, liberty or positions to save Jews during the Holocaust. Since that time, over 22,000 rescuers from 44 countries have been acknowledged for their efforts. On December 12, 1967, Corrie Ten Boom was recognized with this award for her efforts in saving nearly 800 Jewish lives during WWII, as well as for her arrest and deportation into the camps, for which not everyone from her family survived. Enter New York Times and international bestselling author Larry Loftis. His book tells the story of the Ten Boom family, who risked lives – their free lives – to do what they could to save the people who were being targeted by the Nazi Regime.

The subject today? We’re going to delve into a little economics – you can call it Reaganomics if you’d like. Ronald Reagan called it common sense. Everyday, we hear economists debate a multitude of economic theories which are as diverse as apple varieties in the produce department. Whether you’re a fuji, or granny smith or Winesap lover, economic theories are usually not as sweet. Even Harry Truman got so frustrated he asked if he could have a one-handed economist. Because economists always say, “on the other hand…”

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back just three days to May 22, 2023 for our in-person event with United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito, who was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. Senator Capito has served as the Senator of West Virginia since 2014, the first female Senator in West Virginia’s history. When re-elected in 2020, Senator Capito won with the largest margin of victory for a Republican in state history – winning more than 70% of the vote and all 55 counties. During her Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Senator Capito addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.

‘Tis the season of the commencement address, that glowing tradition in which American presidents participate enthusiastically. Starting with Eisenhower, every president has made at least one commencement address in the first year of their presidency. Most gave only one or two addresses, but George H.W. Bush set the record by making six addresses in 1989. LBJ was runner-up with 5 in 1965. The earliest instance of a commencement address is Theodore Roosevelt in his 1902 address at the Naval Academy—the most frequent commencement destination. Turns out, the military academies account for 30% of presidential commencement addresses. Occasionally, commencement addresses have involved an extended articulation of an important new policy position but that is relatively rare. Commonly, presidents state their position on prominent contemporary issues. Almost always, they provide an opportunity for presidents to extol shared American values and international commitments.

President Reagan was no exception.

Join us this week on the “Words To Live By” podcast as we explore the timeless perspectives of former President Ronald Reagan on small businesses in America. During his time in office, President Reagan emphasized the crucial role played by small businesses in America’s economy, famously stating, “Small business is the heart of America.” We’ll look at some of his key quotes and speeches that highlight the contributions of small businesses to our nation’s prosperity. We’ll also explore the socio-economic variables of the time period which shaped Reagan’s views on small businesses in the 1980s, and discuss how his message remains relevant even today, particularly in our current economy. Get ready for this exciting episode of “Words To Live By”!

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back 10 days to May 1, 2023 for our in-person event with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. Glenn Youngkin is an American businessman and politician, currently serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since January 15, 2022. Prior to entering politics, Glenn Youngkin spent 25 years at the private-equity firm the Carlyle Group, where he became co–CEO in 2018. During his Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Governor Youngkin addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.

It’s the month for celebrating our Moms. As we get older and become parents and grandparents, we realize the great gifts we received from our mothers and President Reagan was no exception. So today’s podcast will focus on the President’s respectful communication on that most wonderful subject: Motherhood.

Did you know that Pele visited the White House? Yes, the soccer star Pele was invited to the White House in 1982. Then a year later, President Reagan invited all of the all-star soccer players of Team America in order to promote America’s participation in the World Cup. The US tried to host soccer’s World Cup several times but did not succeed until 1994 when, you might recall, the final was played at the Rose Bowl. Anyway, turns out the White House was a busy place for sporting events in May. So in this podcast, we’ll listen to a few different sets of the President’s remarks while greeting the soccer playing members of Team America, then we’ll catch his remarks observing National Amateur Baseball Month, and finally, at the end of the podcast, we’ll hear when he hosted hockey’s New York Islanders, champs of the National Hockey League.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back one week to April 20, 2023 for our in-person event with Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel. She was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel is the second woman ever elected as Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the longest-serving RNC Chair since the Civil War. Under her leadership, the RNC raised record funds, made its largest ever ground game investment, and retired Nancy Pelosi by winning back the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Prior to her tenure at the RNC, Chairwoman McDaniel served as the Chair of the Michigan Republican Party. During her Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Chairwoman McDaniel addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.

Today, the subject is the Middle East. And after years of struggling to find peace and end terrorism in that region, Ronald Reagan characterized the challenges by saying, “it was like walking on a tightrope.” From 1982 to 1991, over thirty U.S. and other Western hostages were kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Specifically, the year 1983 brought new and complex challenges to President Reagan’s doorstep. In Beirut, Lebanon, our U.S. embassy was destroyed in a suicide car-bomb attack on April 18th when a one-half ton pickup truck laden detonated its load of 2000 pounds of TNT. 63 died, including 17 Americans. Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. It was the deadliest attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission to date, and changed the way the U.S. Department of State secured its resources and executed its missions overseas. Six months later, on October 23rd in Beirut, Shiite suicide bombers exploded a truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines. Minutes later, a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut. Then in Kuwait City on December 12, Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80. That’s just the Middle East…the subject of today’s podcast. And we’ll focus on the attack 40 years ago in Beirut.

So, what do you know about Social Security? USA Today reported that President Joe Biden should learn a lesson in leadership from Emmanuel Macron, his counterpart across the pond. The French president has followed through on campaign promises to address pension shortfalls by raising the retirement age to 64 from 62. Guess what? A lot of people don’t like it, and the French have taken to the streets. Yet, Macron isn’t deterred by the potential political fallout. He knows it must be done. “One cannot play with the future of the country,” Macron said recently to government ministers. Rather than talk straight with Americans about what must be done to ensure that U.S. entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare remain solvent, Biden prefers to play politics. So calling upon Ronald Reagan for wisdom, we’ll listen to two addresses in this podcast on the subject – the first from November 1977 which goes into the history and purpose of Social Security…and in the second half of the podcast, we’ll listen to his speech, six years later, in 1983 after amendments were finally made to save the system.

In today’s podcast, we’re inspired to look back at a speech Reagan delivered in 1987 at the Annual Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. “Why,” you ask? Well due to the recent bank failures of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank , we thought our listeners would like a closer look. Everyone wants to blame Reagan. Economist Paul Krugman in 2009 claimed that “Reagan Did It.” Yes, he wrote that “the prime villains behind the mess we’re in were Reagan and his circle of advisers.” This is perverse thinking by shifting blame from the obvious villains closer at hand. It is disingenuous to ignore the fact that the derivatives scams at the heart of the economic meltdown didn’t exist in President Reagan’s time. The huge expansion in collateralized mortgage and other debt, the bubble that burst, was the direct result of enabling deregulatory legislation pushed through during the Clinton years. Back in the 1982, 41 years ago, Ronald Reagan’s signing off on legislation easing mortgage requirements pales in comparison to the damage wrought fifteen years later by a cabal of powerful Democrats and Republicans who enabled the wave of newfangled financial gimmicks that resulted in the economic collapse. Reagan didn’t do it, but Clinton-era Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, did. They, along with then-Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and Republican congressional leaders James Leach and Phil Gramm, blocked any effective regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives that turned into the toxic assets now being paid for with tax dollars. Ok that was one financial crisis…and as another one looms, let’s listen to the President in 1987, who talks about the basics like good management.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back a few weeks to March 16, 2023 for our in-person event with American businessman and politician Dave McCormick. Mr. McCormick served as President Bush’s Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and served as the CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, from 2020-2022. He joined us at the Reagan Library to discuss his newest book, Superpower in Peril: A Battle Plan to Renew America, which is Dave McCormick’s vision for how to unlock America’s full potential for greatness. He sat down in conversation with Reagan Institute Director Roger Zakheim.

As you know, President Reagan was a man of deep faith, and because attending church created a massive security problem for the parishioners and clergy, he chose to stay home. Sometimes he was visited by a local clergyman and occasionally was able to take communion. So at this time of the year when both Easter and Passover are celebrated, we’ll listen to some of the President’s wise words from 1983, 40 years ago. He delivered a radio address on the subject of both Easter and Passover, reflecting on those seeking freedom from oppression across the globe – in East Germany, in Central America…which to our minds, reminds us quite a bit of the current struggle in Ukraine. We think you’ll find this interesting.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast we go back just one week to March 23, 2023 for our private evening program to commemorate the opening of our special exhibition, “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.” which opened to the public Friday, March 24, 2023. The West Coast debut of the 12,500 sq. ft. exhibition is the first of three final North American stops. Created by Spanish company Musealia together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, and now being toured through North America by World Heritage Exhibitions, the exhibit displays the largest and most comprehensive collection of artifacts linked to the history of this German Nazi concentration and extermination camp.

A groundbreaking exhibit opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Museum on March 24 entitled Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. No book, or podcast, or history lesson can prepare you for the impact and power this extraordinary collection of artifacts holds. The exhibition brings together more than 700 original objects of great historic and human value; objects which were direct witnesses to the horrors of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. These objects serve as the guiding thread of a rigorous and moving account on the history of the German Nazi camp Auschwitz and its dwellers, both victims and perpetrators. Why such an exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum you ask? In Ronald Reagan’s personal journey, he discovered that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds; rather it unfolds often in the most unlikely ways. His unexpected, eye-opening exposure to top-secret footage during World War II fueled his hatred of oppressive government, antisemitism, and his resolve to protect human freedom.

In this week’s Reagan Forum podcast, we go back two weeks to March 8, 2023 for our in-person event with Dr. Condoleezza Rice who was a speaker in the Reagan Foundation’s Time for Choosing Speaker Series, a forum for leading voices in the conservative movement. From January 2005 to January 2009, Dr. Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Dr. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s National Security Advisor from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position. She is currently the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution and a Senior Fellow on Public Policy. During her Time for Choosing Speech at the Reagan Library, Dr. Rice addressed additional critical issues facing the future of the Republican Party.